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The strongest evidence for a Universe before the Big Bang (bigthink.com)

submitted 1 year ago by btaf45 to c/[email protected]

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[–] solrize 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Usually inflation refers to a period after the big bang rather than before it. BICEP2 seemed to detect anisotropy in the CMB that pointed to something before the big bang, but that measurement turned out to be erroneous.

I hadn't heard of Ethan Siegel. If you're saying the article is legit then I'll give it another read. I stopped the first time because I got bot vibes from some wordings. Thanks.

[–] btaf45 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Siegal is my favorite cosmology writer. When ChatGPT writes an astronomy article you will know it because it will be full of basic errors that an elementary school teacher could spot. ChatGPT told that Andromeda was inside the MIlky Way lol.

Usually inflation refers to a period after the big bang rather than before it.

I think that is an older simplistic theory. Siegal says that the "hot big bang" is something that happened at about t0+10^-32. Time t0 is where the BB timeline starts because it is the earliest time we can extrapolate backwards to. The time between t0 and the hot big bang represents the final fraction of a second of cosmic inflation. Even the originators of cosmic inflation admit that nobody knows how long cosmic inflation lasted.

[–] solrize 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Thanks, I had previously read that inflation too place between 1e-36 and 1e-32 sec after the big bang, rather than before it. I will read both Siegel articles (he seems to spell it with -el). I don't know what time durations are even supposed to mean under such conditions but that's ok, hopefully the theorists have some kind of idea.

Added: oh I think there is a difference in terminology. What Wikipedia calls the inflationary epoch is what Siegel calls the hot big bang.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I didn't get bot vibes, but I also thought it took too long to get to the point. It did an awful lot of stepwise walking to how we determine which theory fits the patterns--I assume to handhold lay readers. I'm pretty lay but I found it tedious. But of course there is always someone who needs more hanging than you do.